Ulster sales tax down to wire

Thursday

Jan 23, 2014 at 2:00 AM

James Nani

KINGSTON — With time running out, a bill allowing Ulster County to start collecting 1 percent more in sales tax failed to make it to the state Senate floor Wednesday because of Albany politics.If the bill isn’t on the books by Thursday, cuts would begin to be made to several Ulster County services starting Feb. 1, as outlined in Ulster County Executive Mike Hein’s 2014 budget. Last week the state Assembly version of the bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, passed. The bill ties sales tax to the county picking up the costs of Safety Net, or welfare, from local municipalities completely by 2015.But on Wednesday, the bill got hung up in committee. John Parete, chairman of the county legislature, said sources in Albany told him state Sen. Jeff Klein, D-Bronx, objected to the bill, although he hears Klein won’t block it Thursday. According to Daily News reporter Ken Lovett, the bill became a political football to make a point to Senate Republicans.Deputy County Executive Ken Crannell said that the bill was hung up because it had no Senate sponsor and had to take an unexpected turn into a rules committee that didn’t meet Wednesday. Either way, Cahill says he expects the bill to be taken up Thursday instead.The county Legislature, which met Wednesday at 9 p.m., set to approve the bill, instead went into recess until 4:30 p.m. Thursday.Hein, a Democrat, said the failure of the state Senate to take up the bill Wednesday was proof of technical flaws in Cahill’s bill. Crannell said the state Legislature would need to meet again to fix it. Hein blamed Cahill for harming Ulster County to the tune of millions of lost sales tax revenue. Cahill said his bill is “flawless” and accused Hein of incompetence.The sales tax revenue is worth an estimated $22.5 million a year to the county; $3 million to the City of Kingston; and $790,711 to be shared by local towns. If everything goes right Thursday, a county clerk will need to make a mad dash to the post office before it closes in order to get Hein’s signature up to Albany in time.